DFU not working for Nrf52840 DK using onboard external flash

[AkashP]

Hi Team,

I want to do the firmware upgrade during bootup the system. Currently New Image is transferred from another BLE device and stored on the External Flash. During Bootup, MCUBoot has to check the Image available on External flash and update the firmware if it is valid Image. Using nrf connect SDK v2.5.0.

I have configured the Prj.conf file as 

CONFIG_SERIAL=y CONFIG_UART_ASYNC_API=y #Enable MCUBOOT bootloader build in the application CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y CONFIG_STDOUT_CONSOLE=y CONFIG_FLASH=y CONFIG_SPI=y CONFIG_BT=y CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL=y CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME="BLE" CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_APPEARANCE=1282 CONFIG_BT_SMP=y CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS=y CONFIG_FLASH=y CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y CONFIG_FLASH_MAP=y CONFIG_NVS=y CONFIG_SETTINGS=y CONFIG_HEAP_MEM_POOL_SIZE=2048 CONFIG_DK_LIBRARY=y CONFIG_BT_SMP_APP_PAIRING_ACCEPT=y CONFIG_BT_SMP_ALLOW_UNAUTH_OVERWRITE=y # RTC CONFIG_NRFX_RTC2=y CONFIG_COUNTER=y CONFIG_BT_USER_DATA_LEN_UPDATE=y CONFIG_BT_USER_PHY_UPDATE=y CONFIG_BT_GAP_AUTO_UPDATE_CONN_PARAMS=n CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_RX_SIZE=2004 CONFIG_BT_ATT_PREPARE_COUNT=2 CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_BUF_COUNT=10 CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_MTU=2000 CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_DYNAMIC_CHANNEL=y CONFIG_BT_CONN_TX_MAX=10 CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_COUNT=10 CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_SIZE=2004 CONFIG_BT_CTLR_DATA_LENGTH_MAX=251 CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_2M=y CONFIG_BT_CTLR_RX_BUFFERS=2 CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_MAX_CONN_EVENT_LEN_DEFAULT=4000000 # Disable notes and warnings CONFIG_LOG_MODE_MINIMAL=y CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=y

mcuboot.conf

CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256 CONFIG_BOOT_VALIDATE_SLOT0=n CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK=y CONFIG_MULTITHREADING=y

nrf52849dk_nfr52840.overlay (placed same folder of proj.conf)

/ {
chosen {
nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25r64;
};
};

py_static.yaml

EMPTY_0: address: 0xfe000 end_address: 0x100000 placement: after: - settings_storage region: flash_primary size: 0x2000 app: address: 0x10200 end_address: 0xfc000 region: flash_primary size: 0xebe00 external_flash: address: 0x0 end_address: 0x800000 region: external_flash size: 0x800000 littlefs_storage: address: 0x0 device: w25q64 end_address: 0x800000 filesystem: littlefs placement: before: - end region: external_flash size: 0x800000 mcuboot: address: 0x0 end_address: 0x10000 placement: before: - mcuboot_primary region: flash_primary size: 0x10000 mcuboot_pad: address: 0x10000 end_address: 0x10200 placement: align: start: 0x4000 before: - mcuboot_primary_app region: flash_primary size: 0x200 mcuboot_primary: address: 0x10000 end_address: 0xfc000 orig_span: &id001 - app - mcuboot_pad region: flash_primary size: 0xec000 span: *id001 mcuboot_primary_app: address: 0x10200 end_address: 0xfc000 orig_span: &id002 - app region: flash_primary size: 0xebe00 span: *id002 mcuboot_secondary: address: 0x1000000 device: DT_CHOSEN(nordic_pm_ext_flash) end_address: 0x10ec000 placement: align: start: 0x4 region: external_flash share_size: - mcuboot_primary size: 0xec000 otp: address: 0xff8100 end_address: 0xff83fc region: otp size: 0x2fc pcd_sram: address: 0x20000000 end_address: 0x20002000 placement: after: - start region: sram_primary size: 0x2000 rpmsg_nrf53_sram: address: 0x20070000 end_address: 0x20080000 placement: before: - end region: sram_primary size: 0x10000 settings_storage: address: 0xfc000 end_address: 0xfe000 placement: align: start: 0x4000 before: - end region: flash_primary size: 0x2000 sram_primary: address: 0x20002000 end_address: 0x20070000 region: sram_primary size: 0x6e000

Bootloader is not able to do the firmware upgrade after system reset. Following message are printed on terminal.

*** Booting nRF Connect SDK v2.5.0 ***
I: Starting bootloader
W: Failed reading sectors; BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256 - too small?
W: Cannot upgrade: not a compatible amount of sectors
I: Bootloader chainload address offset: 0xc000

Please help to resolve the issue.

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi,

See Bootloaders: Using external flash memory partitions.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[AkashP]

Hi,

Based on the above link, I have configured the project(As attached in above). But still facing issue.

Is above configuration is correct?.

Saw one issue for adding the CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y in mcboot.prj. It show issue as CONFIG_SPI_NOR was assigned the value y, but got the value n. Missing dependencies:
DT_HAS_JEDEC_SPI_NOR_ENABLED

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Have you remembered to configure external flash for the MCUboot child image, as can be seen in either of these examples:

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/tree/main/tests/modules/mcuboot/external_flash/child_image/mcuboot

https://github.com/hellesvik-nordic/samples_for_nrf_connect_sdk/tree/main/bootloader_samples/smp/mcuboot_smp_uart_feat_external_flash

AkashP said:

Saw one issue for adding the CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y in mcboot.prj. It show issue as CONFIG_SPI_NOR was assigned the value y, but got the value n. Missing dependencies:
DT_HAS_JEDEC_SPI_NOR_ENABLED

The external flash on the nRF52840 is by default configured to use QSPI and not SPI.

[AkashP]

I have updated the mcuboot config file as below and able to detect the external flash as secondary slot. Thank you

CONFIG_PM=n CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=10240 CONFIG_MBEDTLS_CFG_FILE="mcuboot-mbedtls-cfg.h" CONFIG_BOOT_SWAP_SAVE_ENCTLV=n CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPT_IMAGE=n CONFIG_BOOT_UPGRADE_ONLY=n CONFIG_BOOT_BOOTSTRAP=n CONFIG_BOOT_SWAP_USING_SCRATCH=n CONFIG_FLASH=y CONFIG_FPROTECT=y CONFIG_LOG=y CONFIG_LOG_MODE_MINIMAL=y # former CONFIG_MODE_MINIMAL CONFIG_NRF_RTC_TIMER_USER_CHAN_COUNT=0 CONFIG_MINIMAL_LIBC=y CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_LINE_INPUT_LEN=8192 CONFIG_BOOT_SERIAL_MAX_RECEIVE_SIZE=4096 CONFIG_NORDIC_QSPI_NOR=y CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256 CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT=0xC000 CONFIG_BOOT_VALIDATE_SLOT0=n